News2A contributor and award-winning journalist, and CCRKBA Board of Directors member John Petrolino, filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey State Police after a pattern of denials to numerous Open Public Records Act requests.
“The NJSP has denied countless records requests that I have made over the years, never fulfilling even one,” Director Petrolino said. “When I emailed them about these denials, an unnamed person at NJSP basically told me to sue them – so here we are.” The lawsuit was filed in New Jersey Superior Court on February 27.
The suit centers around the state’s denial of information related to demographic data for retired police officers who carry a concealed firearm. Mr. Petrolino has written extensively about New Jersey’s Permit to Carry statistics and was the first to document a significant disparity in denials for blacks compared to whites.
“Records concerning the retired police officer permits are about as public as you can get,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said. “Do they have the same level of perceived bias in their permitting statistics? Or perhaps worse yet, do they not? The public has a right to know this information. We laud Director Petrolino in his quest to hold New Jersey officials accountable by forcing them to be transparent with those they swore to serve.”
In his request, Mr. Petrolino allowed for heavy redactions of any personally identifiable information and provided that his stated interest was journalistic. The State Police denied the request on February 5, 2026, citing N.J.A.C. 13:54-1.15 (a regulation making firearms permit applications and related documents confidential and releasable only to government officials for “administration of justice”), and in a follow-up email on February 13, 2026, affirmed the denial, writing, “the State’s interest in maintaining the confidentiality of firearms permitting records outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”
The state’s denial is a violation of both common law rights and the New Jersey Civil Rights Act, as stipulated in the suit.
Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests may be made by any citizen under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1, and may even be filed anonymously. The state provides a guide here.
